Combined half hose and garter



Sept. 6, 1938. G. s. VAN VOORHIS COMBINED HALF HOSE AND GARTER Filed Oct. 5, 1936 INVENTOR s7 7; M

' TTORNEY Patented Sept. 6, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COIWBINED HALF HOSE AND GARTER setts Application October 3,

1 Claim.

This invention relates to mens hosiery of the type with which a garter is combined as a permanent part of the structure.

It aims to improve articles of this type with a view to producing a more comfortable, better wearing, and better appearing garment, while at the same time maintaining the expense of manufacture within the narrow limits necessary to make such an article practical.

The nature of the invention will be readily understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawing, and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the drawing,

Figure l is a perspective View of the garter section of the article;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal, sectional View on a large scale through the upper part of the stocking and the portion of the garter secured thereto; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the complete article showing it in the position which it occupies on the leg of the wearer.

Referring first to Fig. 3, the article there shown comprises a stocking of the so-called half hose type including the usual cuff 2 and the common leg, ankle, and foot portions. This stocking may be of any suitable construction. The garter con sists of a strip 3 of elastic webbing containing rubber threads 4, best shown in Fig. 2, which extend circumferentially of the garter. Usually this webbing is a woven product with the rubber threads 4 extending warpwise of the goods. This garter is designed to encircle the leg above the calf, as shown in Fig. 3. It is secured to the top of the stocking 2 by means of a connecting piece 5 of fabric such, for example, as a section of braided web, folded over the top of the garter and extending downwardly at opposite sides thereof. The lower edge of this fabric member 5 is secured permanently to the top of the stocking at 2 by a line of stitches 6, while the upper portion of it is secured to the elastic webbing by seams I.

It will be seen from an inspection of Fig. 1 that the ends of the elastic strip 3 terminate With- 1936, Serial No. 103,920

in, and are enclosed by, the connecting member 5, these ends either being abutted against each other or spaced slightly apart so that they are secured together by being stitched to the fabric 5. Thus the garter may conveniently be completed as a unit and thereafter secured to the stocking. Preferably all of the seams I extend parallel to the rubber threads 4 and are located between them so that there is no danger of the needle nicking the rubbers during the sewing operation and thus breaking them or weakening them sufficiently to cause them to break later when the garter is tensioned.

This arrangement produces a smooth garter in which overlaps of the elastic webbing are avoided, it spaces the garter from the stocking sufficiently to make it comfortable, and it distributes the strain fairly uniformly over the entire width of the garter.

In prior constructions most of the strain has come on the lower edge rubber or rubbers of the elastic webbing, the ends of the fabric strip have been overlapped upon each other and stitched together, thus providing a bunch usually located at the back of the leg which is uncomfortable, and the seams have been run in such a manner that there is great danger of nicking the rubbers and causing them to break and pull out, all of which objections are overcome by the construction above described.

Having thus described my invention, what I desire to claim as new is:

The combination with a half hose, of a garter adapted to encircle the leg above the calf portion thereof and comprising a strip of elastic webbing containing rubber threads extending circumferentially of said garter, and a connecting member comprising a strip of fabric folded over both ends of said garter strip and stitched to and enclosing them, the lower ends of said connecting strip being located at opposite sides of a portion of the top of said hose and being stitched to a relatively short section only thereof, the garter being otherwise free from the hose and being spaced from it.

GEORGE S. VAN VOORHIS. 

